


growing old is getting old.

by katarama



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Aging, Alternate Universe - Future, Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 11:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9178666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katarama/pseuds/katarama
Summary: “Do banshees age the way humans do, or are they more like werewolves?” Kira asked once.Lydia didn’t answer, at the time.  It wasn’t like she had an answer, anyway.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [werewolvesandarrows (nerdy_farm_girl)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdy_farm_girl/gifts).



“Do banshees age the way humans do, or are they more like werewolves?” Kira asked once.    

Lydia didn’t answer, at the time.  She figured Kira was only asking because she’d started having the scary aging conversations with Stiles and Malia.  They were in a group, grabbing food together.  Stiles jumped in to crack a joke about the grey in Derek’s beard, and the question got lost in the tide of the conversation.  It wasn’t like Lydia had an answer, anyway; her powers seemed to come with even less of a guidebook than Kira’s, and the oldest banshee Lydia had ever met was Meredith.

It lingers in the back of Lydia’s head, but she tries not to dwell on it.  With as much as her powers seem to be inextricably linked with death, she prefers not to think about her own.  It’s been a little too close for comfort more than once in the last couple of years, and she’s learned to enjoy whatever peace she has while she has it.

* * *

 

She starts thinking about it more when she starts dating Scott.  

Lydia can tell that Scott has aged since he was a sophomore.  She remembers how he looked that first time she kissed him, with his soft, curling hair and his gentle, bright eyes.  He’s grown into his looks nicely.  He’s handsome, and distinctly older; his hair is shorter and his shoulders are broader.  Lydia knows it defies logic and medicine, but she can’t help the offhanded thought that they’ve grown that sturdy from carrying the weight of the world on them.  

She sometimes wonders if it’s the stress more than the years themselves that has actually aged Scott, because despite Stiles’ salt and pepper jabs, the only aging she’s seen in Derek could be wiped away if he decided to start shaving his face and chest again.  Lydia’s never been able to guess how old Derek actually is, whereas Scott looks every bit his age.  It could just be that there’s a certain age when the regular process of time starts to slow, and that Scott hasn’t hit it yet.  

But even if the effect is less dramatic than Lydia feared so far, Lydia is still painfully aware of her age, and it makes her insecure about things that she would otherwise be perfectly comfortable with.  Malia’s already working towards having children, but Lydia and Scott are still living in a small apartment just off campus while they finish up grad school.  She knows she’s still young, and that she doesn’t regret any of her life choices so far.  She is investing in an education.  She is younger than every other person in her program, so she’s hardly behind.  And she isn’t even sure she wants to have a biological child, anyway.  Her career is important to her, and if she is going to have a child, she’d just as well adopt when she and Scott are at a point in their lives when they know they can be responsible and attentive parents.

It just bothers her, sometimes, thinking about how much less time she probably has than everyone but Stiles.  She knows Scott smells the anxiety on her when she frets.  Lydia knows, by now, how Scott tries to show his concern, the gentle hand on her back, or brushing her hair away from her face.  He presses kisses to her lips, her cheeks, her head, asks her softly if she’s okay.  His touch is comforting, his arms around her grounding, and his concern is like a balm.  

She always tells him it’s stress from school, or from missing the pack, and he lets it slide.  Until one early morning when she stands in front of the bathroom mirror and sends him to go grab some of her makeup from her purse.

“Why is there anti-aging cream in here?”

“I thought you grew out of questioning my skincare regimen,” Lydia jokes, but Scott’s forehead only crinkles, his brow furrowed.

“Do you really need anti-aging cream at 24, though?” Scott asks.

“How well you take care of your skin in your 20's determines what it will look like once you leave them,” Lydia says.  “Not all of us have magic healthy regenerating skin, or look young forever.”

Scott walks back over to her and sets her foundation on the edge of the sink.  Lydia watches his reflection in the mirror as he circles his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck.

“It isn’t my decision what you put on your face,” he says calmly, “and if anti-aging cream makes you feel better and more secure, then that’s your call.  But I want you to know that I love you, and you are beautiful.  And I am going to love you just as much, and you’re going to be just as beautiful to me, when you have wrinkles and grey hair.  What anyone else sees when they look at us won’t matter.”

Lydia could easily protest that Scott can’t know that for sure.  People fall out of love with and out of attraction to each other, and no matter how fiercely Scott promises, he can’t predict the future.  But she doesn’t bother to voice her objections.  Because no one can promise anything, at the end of the day; she may not even live until she’s old enough to get gray, and she may be wasting all this worrying on a future that doesn’t really exist.

What she knows, and what she can be secure in, is the fact that Scott loves her now, in the full and overwhelming way Scott always loves, and that Scott believes with everything in him that she is beautiful.  As far as reassurance, it goes a very long way.

“My hair won’t go grey for a very long time, that’s what hair dye is for,” Lydia says, and she can feel Scott huff a laugh against the back of her neck.

She skips the anti-aging cream, but just for the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr [here](http://sleepy-skittles.tumblr.com).


End file.
